by gillian claire: roman

SOCIAL MEDIA

5.08.2015

portraits of roman.

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These pictures of Roman absolutely light up my heart. My seven year old, my "sweetest boy", my "star". I love this boy tremendously. I love when we stay up late to watch Cupcake Wars together. I love when he writes me a million little notes with "xoxo" at the end. That's it for today; I hope these photos bring a smile to your face as well. 
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Happy Friday!
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  We Are A Top Baby Blog
4.06.2015

jogger pants; yes please.

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     Hello friends, it's been a while! I wanted to pop in this Monday morning and share these pictures of my sweet 7 year old modeling the outfit that FabKids sent us recently! I am a huge fan of the jogger pants trend and can't get over how adorable they look on Roman! I'm also so pleased with how perfectly these pants fit because, as I've mentioned, finding pants to fit Roman's body type has been a real struggle this year! They will get us through the rest of the chilly days that may happen this spring. It's been super warm here in Colorado but we also had a snowstorm last week so you never know! Also, this color blue on him - sigh! It brings out his sparkly blue eyes. :)
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     Cheers to a happy Monday! I'm itching to update my blog so hopefully I'll be able to put together a few posts this week. In the meantime, I'm loving being back on Instagram - you can find me here: @bygillianclaire! Leave a comment if you follow me so that I can follow you as well! <3
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Be sure to check out FabKids for yourself! 
Use my link to get 20% off your first outfit with free shipping!
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( Roman's faces here - hah! )
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outfit: c/o FabKids, shoes $3 Old Navy clearance (score!)
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We Are A Top Baby Blog
 
2.19.2015

portraits of roman.

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My blog has been a little Asher heavy lately. It's natural because Asher is three and at an overall easier to photograph stage.  Roman, who is seven now, is going through a trying-to-be-funny in every photo stage. I mean, I can't blame him - he is a kid after all. As far as photographer-moms go, I'm pretty relaxed about the camera. I don't always have it and I'm very particular about when I bust it out. I try to read my kids and I try not to push it. I just couldn't handle being someone who always takes pictures, it would stress me out. In fact, I definitely need to relax a little more in this regard. I need to let the camera be a little more a part of me, a little more convenient.
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My passion is definitely photographing my children. I enjoy it more than photographing anything in the world. The pictures that I take of them are, of course, so meaningful, a part of me. I also love the laid back feel of photographing my children as opposed to "other people". Don't get me wrong, I enjoy photographing others - but it's more set up, it's a job. Photographing my boys is the purest way to make a photograph for me. They are themselves, I'm truly in the background, recording them as they are.
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But of course, it's not always just happening in front of me eyes. As many other mother/photographers know, there is that struggle of "oh, oh wait, wait wait, stand over here! smile! can i take one more? can you just do this-this-or that?" I know this is frustrating for kids. It is. It's certainly a lesson in patience because I love photography, I love photographing them, and ideas are going through my head and there are those moments I just want them to cooperate. Which of course, are the moments when they want nothing to do with it.
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Even though it can be frustrating, I think the fact that children don't always want to cooperate adds to what is so wonderful about photographing them. Any adult can model and pose and do exactly what you want in front of the camera. Of course there is also an added awkwardness + insecurity that adults feel when having their picture taken. But with kids, it's more pure and real. Yesterday, while we were taking some FabKids photos, Roman was goofing off a little of course but he also, knowing how much it would mean to me, looked into my camera with these wonderful little faces and I couldn't be happier how they turned out. Because, truly, even though these photos were directed in a way and didn't just happen, this is the boys he is - the absolute sweetest boy and these are the smiles he gives me after I say no and he knows that I'll give in, and it's way he looks in the last moments of night when I tuck the blanket up by his face and whisper, "You are the sweetest, sweetest boy," and he says, "thanks mom."


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These pictures were certainly worth the wait. :)
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1.20.2015

boy style // FabKids

IMG_3893-2IMG_3906-2Roman with no arms... ;)
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     I really do love doing photoshoots with my boys and it's one of my favorite things in the world, but man is it hard to find that balance between fun and infuriating! 
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     I love the outfits that FabKids sent us for January, a perfect mix of neon / colorblock + stripes: my faves. I had a cute idea planned to use these fuzzy mustache stickers that I picked up at Old Navy for a photoshoot this month. The boys really had a lot of fun with them but I didn't get a lot of the side by side, sitting on the steps picture-perfect photos that I'd planned. It was more like a lot of dancing and tumbling around and the outtakes, I must say are absolutely hilarious. 
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     So there was a lot of frustration but also a lot of fun; the golden sun setting over the mountains was peaking over the railing just so and I ended up with these gems. All in all, we have a lot of fun doing "photoshoots" and my boys put up with me thankfully and give me so many pictures and moments tied with them to treasure for always.
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fabkids_jan_dip1fabkids_january5 Recognize this shirt?fabkids_january_dip4IMG_3759
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Be sure to check out FabKids subscription clothing company
for kids: here and get 20% off your first purchase!

11.18.2014

FabKids // october picks.

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FabKids sent us these ridiculously adorable outfits in October and here are my favorite things about them:
- matchy-match pirate hoodie tees! the boys were SO excited to get these and matching outfits just have to happen sometimes.
- asher's tiny red chino pants, i mean really: so. freaking. adorable.
- these FabKids cargo pants are the best fitting pants that i have found for roman this year so i was really happy to get him another pair!
- these pictures! that top picture of roman just personifies his sweetness and i love the happiness of asher twirling in the leaves. i had a difficult time editing some of these photos because of the crazy color cast from all the leaves, but those last few pictures of my boys together ... sigh. <3
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Be sure to check out FabKids, a fun subscription clothing company for kids!!
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and to see more photos of my boys wearing FabKids clothing, click here
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The clothing featured in this post was provided by FabKids. Thanks for reading and supporting my family! <3
10.06.2014

FabKids // september picks.

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I don't realize how fast the month is going by until I get an email saying that the new FabKids outfits are reading to pick from and I almost always haven't even photographed and shared my boys in their outfits from the previous month!
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This month Roman knew right away that he wanted to choose this outfit with the flannel shirt. I definitely didn't have this outfit in mind for him because I figured that a long sleeved teeshirt would get a lot more use. However, he really insisted that he wanted this shirt and Aaron and I thought it was pretty darn cute. :) His "Mr. Cool" shirt underneath is from a FabKids outfit he chose a few months back that I don't think I ever got a chance to share! I'm really happy with this outfit and the biggest reason is that the pants FIT him. I have had the hardest time finding pants for Roman this season! He is growing like a weed and when we went pants shopping at Old Navy and Target I had the boy try on every style pants available with no luck. I'm normally not a huge cargo pants fan but these FabKids pants fit him and it's a miracle! I love the rich brown color as well.
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I was really excited to get these black skinny jeans for Asher this month. Last month I picked skinny jeans for Asher and I am in love with them! They are absolutely adorable and he wears them ALL the time! I love that the waistbands on FabKids pants are adjustable and it has benefited both of my boys. Asher is a little skinny scarecrow and even though these pants are only a size 2 I have to pull the waist as tight as it will go! I'm really excited to have a new pair of these skinny jeans for him and I love the Rock Legend sweatshirt as well! I'm slowly trying to transition Asher to the next size so I got a size 3 in this sweatshirt but it's a little roomy. :)
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Be sure to check out FabKids for yourself! FabKids is a subscription clothing company offering brand new outfits to pick from each month! If you sign up now you'll get your first outfit for only $15! You always have the option to skip any month with no charge and you can cancel your FabKids subscription at any time. One thing that I really like about FabKids is that when you become a member you get offers for a lot of great deals in addition to your monthly outfit. FabKids is always offering fun discounts like boy one outfit get one free, $10 pants, and they also have sale items as well that go pretty cheap!
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Thanks so much for reading along. I love sharing my boys' FabKids outfits with you guys every month! We have so much fun with our monthly photo shoots!
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We Are A Top Baby Blog
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( This post includes affiliate links to FabKids. If you use my link, you will receive your first outfit for only $15 and in return I will receive points towards free outfits for my kids. FabKids sent me these outfits to share with you all but this post and all opinions are my own. Thanks for reading along and providing my family with these awesome opportunities! )

8.23.2014

back to school.

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Well, the first week of school has come and gone. Roman's school lets out two hours early for the first two weeks due to the heat, which is making for a nice transition. I don't want to think too much about my little boy being gone until 3:00 everyday yet! We went to Target + Old Navy last Friday to finish up our back to school shopping and it was so much fun. Well, until Asher's melt down that lasted two days over the light-up Ninja Turtle shoes he didn't get to buy, yikes...
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Roman seems very happy with his class. He miraculously picked a navy blue lunch box over all the obnoxious cartoon character ones which secretly made me happy and he told me all about trading some of his goldfish crackers at lunch with his classmates; it was, "so awesome," he says. Roman was super excited to tell me that he got a chance to be a "behavior bee" in his class, which means that he was rewarded for his good behavior by being able to sit in the bumblebee bean bag chair. His face was just lit up when he told me about it in the car. He really is just the sweetest, sweetest little boy - his teacher is pretty lucky I'd say.
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I am exhausted from my first week of school. I feel overwhelmed and stressed and a little in over my head. I really am not used to being so busy and it's just really tiring especially on Tuesdays + Thursdays where my days are 12+ long with work and school now. I'm still trying to figure things out as far as classes transferring / financial aid etc. as well so needless to say, I am super glad that it's Saturday. I don't work OR have school today because Aaron is working in the mountains and I'm hoping the boys will want to pretty much sit around and do nothing all day. Maybe I'll sort through some laundry as well since we have a new (to us) washer + dryer set!
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FabKids sent us these "back to school" outfits and oh my gosh, I am in LOVE with them. These little Fender and NPR tee shirts are just the coolest things ever and they are super soft / great quality as well. I've had these outfits waiting in the wings to be photographed for a while now but it's just been too gosh darn hot to put the boys in jeans. Last night was a super cool / rainy / fall weather kind of evening so after baths I took the boys out to the porch to do our traditional back to school sign coloring. I love how Roman went for a "color-blocking" technique and Asher was very excited and worked hard on his as well, although afterwards he ripped both of these papers to shreds in true Asher style! At least I have the photos though, right? ;)
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How is the back to school season going for you all?
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on Asher - NPR shirt: c/o FabKids jeans: c/o FabKids shoes: Old Navy ( on clearance now! )
on Roman - Fender shirt: c/o FabKids jeans c/o FabKids
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And hey, if you like flashbacks like I do, here is our very similar back to school post on this same porch from last year! Time flies...
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We Are A Top Baby Blog
( This post includes affiliate links to FabKids. If you use my link, you will receive your first outfit for only $15 and in return I will receive points towards free outfits for my kids. FabKids sent me these outfits to share with you all but this post and all opinions are my own. Thanks for reading along and providing my family with these awesome opportunities! )
8.07.2014

{heat} of summer.


these boys..
this is one of my favorite photos of my boys and one of my favorite photos period.
two little brothers,
two years ago
a different time, different place
same heat of summer.
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"Heat" is the July writing prompt of The Mommy Blogger Collective. In addition to a monthly writing prompt, the collective hosts a monthly blogger featurette. This month we are featuring Renee of oh renée. A few words from Renée --- Oh Renée started as a creative outlet for me a few years ago, a happy place to share creative and fun projects or fashion. Since then, it has evolved into one of the best things I could ever have done with my time! The last few years of blogging have become much more personal to me- more of a way to document this life of mine, with my husband, with my little boy and with the world around me. I enjoy sharing glimpses into our days and sharing in other mom’s lives as well, as part of this wonderful world of social media. Being a mother is better than anything I could have expected! Truly. I call Ohio my home, I keep the joy of traveling and exploring new places close to my heart, i spend my evenings knitting and am never without a book in my hand or in my purse. My blog is much of the same! You can find me on Instagram at instagram.com/ohreneedesign. /// The Mommy Blogger Collective /// Christina, Courteney, Dena, Erica, Erin, Gillian, Katie, Misty, Nicole, and Renée. ///

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